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Masking is a way of selectively hiding and displaying content on a layer. Masking is a way for you to control the content that your audience sees. For example, you can make a circular mask and allow your audience to only see through the circular area, so that you get a keyhole or spotlight effect. In Flash, you put a mask on one layer and the content that is masked in a layer below it.

For the animated logo you’re creating in this lesson, you’ll add a mask that will make the text a little more visually interesting.

Define the Mask layer

You’ll create a mask from the “Fire starter” text that will reveal an image of a fire beneath it.

NOTE

Flash does not recognize different Alpha levels in a mask created on a timeline, so a semi-transparent fill in the Mask layer has the same effect as an opaque fill, and edges will always be hard-edged. However, with ActionScript you can dynamically create masks that will allow transparencies.

NOTE

Masks do not recognize strokes, so use only fills in the Mask layer. Text created from the Text tool also works as a mask.

For this lesson, we’re using the text already in place as the mask, but the mask can be any filled shape. The color of the fill doesn’t matter. What’s important to Flash are the size, location, and contours of the shape. The shape will be the “peephole” through which you’ll see the content on the layer below. You can use any of the drawing or text tools to create the fill for your mask.